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INTRODUCTION
This is the Rest in Playlist for Friday, November 17th, 2023, featuring recording artists from around the world who passed away recently. This week, we’ve got three actresses on our Main Stage. The Reaper also brings us a smorgasbord of pop, funk, blues, rap, jazz, and showtunes featuring artists from five continents spanning sixty-two years of age between them. Get ready to expand your musical horizons on this global jam session from the great beyond. Let’s kick things off with our Opening Act.
Opening Act:
[10 Nov 2023] Johnny Ruffo, 35, Australian singer (“On Top”) and actor (Home and Away), brain cancer.
We open with Johnny Ruffo, an Australian actor and singer who went on the last walkabout on November 10th at age 35, concluding his battle with brain cancer. Ruffo made his splash by finishing third on The X Factor Australia in 2011. He then went on to win the twelfth season of Australia’s Dancing With The Stars in 2012 and starred on the Aussie soap opera Home and Away in 2013. This is his debut single called “On Top,” which peaked at #14 on the Aussie charts.
Johnny Ruffo – On Top
Headliner:
[09 Nov 2023] Junko Ohashi, 73, Japanese singer, esophageal cancer.
Our headliner this week is a Japanese singer with a five-decade career. Junko Ohashi recorded her first album in 1974 and within two years, this track, “Paper Moon,” was a hit. She continued releasing hits throughout the late 70s and early 1980s, as well as appearing on television singing competitions. Ohashi died from esophageal cancer on November 9th at the age of 73.
Junko Ohashi – Paper Moon (ペイパー・ムーン)
Main Stage:
[11 Nov 2023] Conny Van Dyke, 78, American singer and actress (Hell’s Angels ’69, W.W. and the Dixie Dancekings, Framed), complications from vascular dementia.
On the Main Stage this week we have a trilogy of actresses. We welcome Conny Van Dyke, an American actress known for film work with Burt Reynolds and Joe Don Baker, as well as TV appearances on Adam-12 & Police Woman, and 70s game shows like Match Game and Hollywood Squares. She was also a singer who was one of the first white artists signed to Motown Records in 1961. Van Dyke succumbed to vascular dementia on November 11th at the age of 78. Here she is singing “I Know a Place.”
Conny Van Dyke – I Know A Place
[08 Nov 2023] Hannelore Auer, 81, Austrian singer and film actress (I’m Marrying the Director, The Merry Wives of Tyrol, …denn die Musik und die Liebe in Tirol).
Now we head to Austria for another actress who dabbled in singing. Hannelore Auer got her start in German comedies in the 1960s. She was also married to and managed the career of the German singer Heino. Prior to that marriage, she was married to an Austrian prince. Here’s music from the soundtrack of one of her films, a duet with Manos Hadjidakis called, “Was in Athen geschah,” or “What Happened in Athens.”
Manos Hadjidakis, Hannelore Auer – Was in Athen geschah
[05 Nov 2023] Anne Hart, 90, British actress and singer.
Our final actress brings us to London, England, where stage actress Anne Hart is our oldest woman in the Reaper’s rotation, joining the choir invisible on November 5th at the age of 90. Hart made her West End debut as a child in the Christmas show Where The Rainbow Ends. She was married to British comedy legend Ronnie Corbett for fifty years. Here she is performing “I Love What I’m Doing” from Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.
Anne Hart – I Love What I’m Doing
The House of Blues:
[09 Nov 2023] R.L. Boyce, 68, American blues musician.
It’s the inauguration of our newest stage here on the Rest in Playlist, The House of Blues. I mean, nobody else is using that name right now, right? Taking the stage this week is a Mississippi bluesman who started backing blues artists on drums in the early 1960s. It wasn’t until 2013 that R.L. Boyce recorded his own album, but just five years later he was nominated for a Grammy in the Best Traditional Blues category. Boyce died on November 9th at the age of 68. Here he is singing “Poor Black Mattie.”
R.L. Boyce – Poor Black Mattie
International Stage:
[06 Nov 2023] Yoshiko Miura [ja], 74, Japanese lyricist (“Mayonaka no Door (Stay with Me)”), pneumonia.
We return to Japan to celebrate the work of a lyricist who penned numerous Japanese dance hits from the late 1970s through the 1980s, Yoshiko Miura, who passed away at age 74 on November 6th from pneumonia. Here’s one of her biggest hits, sung by Miki Matsubara, called “Mayonaka No Door (Stay With Me).”
Miki Matsubara – Mayonaka No Door (Stay With Me)
[14 Nov 2023] Buzy, 66, French singer.
Next, we’re off to France, where Buzy, born Marie-Claire Girod, has passed at age 66 on November 14th. Buzy had her greatest success in the 1980s and continued releasing albums and singles through the 2010s. This is her biggest hit, “Body Physical.”
Buzy – Body Physical
[15 Nov 2023] OlaDips, 28, Nigerian rapper.
Finally, we end up in Nigeria with the youngest artist on the post-mortem mixtape, a rapper named OlaDips. OlaDips first appeared on a Drake tune in 2012, then rose to fame when he won a Nigerian rap competition in 2015. His newest album just dropped, and this is the ironically-titled single, “Die Young,” which OlaDips did on November 15th at the age of 28.
OlaDips – Die Young
The Jazz Cellar:
[06 Nov 2023] Dino Piana [it], 93, Italian jazz musician.
Let’s drop into the Jazz Cellar, where we have the oldest man on the afterworld’s setlist, Italian jazz musician Dino Piana, who died on November 6th at the age of 93. Piana naturally played the instrument that made most sense, the trombone, of course. Here he is with his jazz sextet performing “Sigma Pop.”
Sestetto Dino Piana – Sigma Pop
Festival Stage:
[11 Nov 2023] Luis Carlos Gil, 72, Spanish singer (Trigo Limpio).
On our Festival Stage we welcome one-third of the Spanish group Trigo Limpio named Luis Carlos Gil, who died on November 11th at the age of 72. The trio were popular in the 1970s and 1980s, and represented Spain in the 1980 Eurovision Song Contest with this number entitled “Quedate Esta Noche,” or “Stay Tonight.”
Trigo Limpio – Quedate Esta Noche
[12 Nov 2023] Mohammed al Amin, 80, Sudanese musician.
Next, we have Sudan’s Mohammed Al Amin, who died on November 12th at the age of 80. Several times, his patriotic and critical songs evoked the suspicion of the military dictatorships of the day, and he was jailed by despots in the 1970s. To avoid further trouble, he moved to Cairo after the military coup in 1989. Here he is singing “Hal Laka Sirrun,” or “Sirrun’s Accident.”
Mohammaed Al-Amin – Hal Laka Sirrun
[15 Nov 2023] Karl Tremblay, 47, Canadian folk singer (Les Cowboys Fringants), prostate cancer.
We close our International Stage in Canada, where Quebec’s Karl Tremblay has succumbed to prostate cancer at age 47 on November 15th. Tremblay founded his first band in 1976, but became successful in the late 1990s with the band Les Cowboys Fringants (The Dashing Cowboys), considered one of the top bands in the neo-trad movement in Quebecois folk music. Here they are performing “Les Étoiles Filantes,” or “Shooting Stars.”
Les Cowboys Fringants – Les Étoiles Filantes
Encore:
[09 Nov 2023] Junko Ohashi, 73, Japanese singer, esophageal cancer.
We close with an encore from Japan’s Junko Ohashi. She made her debut in 1974 and first hit in 1976. Now we take you forty years forward to 2014 and music from her last album. This is Soul Train Masshigura.
Junko Ohashi – Soul Train Masshigura (Soul Train まっしぐら)
Closing:
And that’s the Rest in Playlist for Friday, November 17th, 2023. Join us here next week for a tribute to the latest artists to cross over to eternity. Catch up on every year of Rest in Playlist back to 2016 on Spotify and RadicalRuss.com. For Rest in Playlist, I’m “Radical” Russ Belville reminding you to seize the day, it may be your last.
